Founder Friday: How Brooke Hill Uses Wonder as a Strategic Advantage
Wonderthink founder Brooke Hill redefines agency leadership by prioritizing curiosity and sustainable high performance.
1Origins of Wonderthink Agency
Brooke Hill founded Wonderthink after a redundancy period following the birth of her daughter. Leveraging a twenty-year background in journalism and brand marketing, she transitioned from freelance copywriting to leading a permanent team. The agency now serves diverse industries, focusing on clear communication while maintaining a network of highly talented creative freelancers.
2Rejecting Traditional Agency Burnout
Hill intentionally built her agency to avoid the industry-standard churn and burn culture. She observed that high performance often leads to creative overload and staff exhaustion. By questioning traditional agency structures, she sought to create a supportive environment where employees can produce their best work without the expectation of constant overtime.
3Operationalizing Sustainable Workloads
Wonderthink manages workloads to prevent overtime, treating extra hours as a symptom of poor planning rather than a badge of honor. The team operates fully remotely, utilizing intentional rituals like weekly wonders and playful workshops. Annual retreats are prioritized to foster genuine connection and creativity instead of cramming in excessive planning sessions.
4AI and Creative Guardrails
While AI accelerates production, Hill warns against filling every saved minute with more tasks. She advocates for leaders to guardrail time for creative thinking and product development. By resisting the urge to maximize output efficiency, leaders can use AI gains to seek fresh perspectives that spark innovation and long-term business value.
5The Three Pillars of Wonder
Hill defines wonder through three practical components: awe, curiosity, and optimism. Awe disrupts habitual thinking and reduces stress, while curiosity drives the openness required for innovation. Optimism, framed as a sense of possibility, encourages teams to ask what-if questions, moving beyond toxic positivity to explore tangible improvements in their daily work.
6Fostering Innovation Through Awe
To combat dropping innovation rates, Hill suggests leaders actively provide experiences of awe. This can range from grand team retreats to simple activities like visiting exhibitions or changing daily routines. These interventions help teams arrive at strategy sessions with fresher perspectives, effectively disrupting the mental patterns that often stifle creative problem-solving.
7Cultivating a Questioning Culture
Hill emphasizes curiosity by encouraging teams to avoid jumping immediately into solution mode. She promotes asking questions that uncover root causes, making it safe for staff to challenge assumptions. When awe opens the mind and curiosity invites exploration, the collective question of how to do things better becomes a contagious organizational habit.
8Wonder as Strategic Performance
Ten years after founding Wonderthink, Hill maintains that wonder is not a distraction but a core performance driver. By creating conditions that support deep thinking, she enables her team to challenge industry norms. Her leadership approach proves that questioning the status quo remains a powerful tool for achieving sustainable, high-quality business results.